Hyperspectral Imaging for Intraoperative Diagnosis of Colon Cancer Metastasis in a Liver

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is being shown as an emerging modality with a great potential in disease diagnosis and surgical cancer resection. Herein, we evaluate feasibility of the HSI to discriminate and diagnose colon cancer metastasis in a liver from five hematoxylin and eosin stained histopathological specimens. They were collected from the same patient during intraoperative frozen section analysis. Cancer and non-cancer spectra along with corresponding spatial maps were estimated from hyperspectral images by means of spectral unmixing. It was found that maximal angle between cancer spectra is 1.02 degrees less than minimal angle between cancer vs. non-cancer spectra. Thus, spectrum angle mapper was used for pixel-based diagnosis of cancer yielding sensitivity between 81.23% and 97.12%, specificity between 85.85% and 97.3%, and accuracy between 86.85% and 96.92%.